This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—On Monday, President Donald Trump will have a closely watched meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, just days after the announcement that 12 Russian military intelligence officers had been indicted on charges of hacking Democratic organizations in an effort to affect the 2016 election.

But first, a bit of golf.

U.S. President Donald Trump, centre, gestures as he plays a round of golf on the Ailsa course at Trump Turnberry in Scotland. He has faced endless opposition as he’s worked to renovate the resort on the west coast and expand Trump International Golf Links Scotland, in Aberdeen. (ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Trump was ensconced from members of the U.S. media who travelled with him here to Trump Turnberry, the luxury Scottish resort where he is staying — but not from British journalists, who captured protesters on a nearby beach shouting, “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA” as he teed off Saturday.

The group chanted across windswept grasslands and a protective buffer of dozens of law enforcement officials, some of whom were on horseback. According to footage captured by the BBC, the president appeared to wave at the crowd before turning back to his golf game.

Thousands in Edinburgh protested his visit Saturday — where the “Trump Baby” balloon made an appearance — and Scottish police confirmed that they were searching for a paraglider with a banner reading, “Trump Well Below Par” who had breached a no-fly zone over the Turnberry resort after the president arrived Friday night.

Trump has for the most part ignored large rallies against him in the U.K., instead focusing on promoting the Turnberry resort, describing it as “magical” while on the world stage this past week at the NATO summit in Brussels and on a working visit to Britain.

Before arriving in Scotland, the president managed repeatedly to plug Turnberry, one of two Scottish resorts that bear his name, as he dealt with some of the most pressing diplomacy problems facing his administration to date.

It is a tactic that has alarmed ethics watchdogs, who say he is using his presidential platform to promote a resort that, according to financial filings, has been a burden on the family business.

Article Continued Below

While the president has blazed a chaotic streak through Europe this past week, Turnberry has received special recognition amid other Trump-issued sound bites that analysts say have undermined the United States’ relationships with close NATO allies.

At a hastily arranged news conference in Brussels, when asked to discuss his message for Britain on its exit from the European Union, Trump said he had none — a thought he would later undermine in stunning fashion in an interview splashed on the cover of the British tabloid The Sun. Then, Trump wove in a reference to Turnberry, on breathtaking bluffs and cliffs on the western coast of Scotland, calling it “magical” and “one of my favorite places.”

“I’m going there for two days while I wait for the Monday meeting” with Putin, the president told the news media.

Trump said he would be taking calls and meetings before the planned gathering with Putin in Helsinki. But around the time he hit one of the resort’s two golf courses Saturday, his official account began posting on Twitter.

In two tweets, he blamed the Obama administration, not Russia, for the hacking and again suggested that a Democratic “deep state” was afoot.

He also plugged the Turnberry golf course again: “The weather is beautiful,” he wrote on Twitter, “and this place is incredible!”

Ethics experts tend to be cynical about the president’s sentimental references to his resort: His arrival at Turnberry marks the 169th day during his presidency that he has visited a property owned, managed or branded by the Trump Organization. Financial records show the resort has lost money since Trump purchased it in 2014.

“I view this as kind of a forced subsidy of an infomercial for his properties,” Norman L. Eisen, chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in an interview Friday. “He’s attempting to utilize his trip to get beneficial PR.”

Before Trump left for Scotland on Friday, he again brought up Turnberry during a news conference in England with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain.

“I was opening Turnberry the day before Brexit,” Trump said, “and all they wanted to talk about was Brexit, and I said, ‘I think Brexit would happen,’ and it did happen.”

Trump, in fact, arrived at Turnberry the day after Britons voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, but he spoke about his resort for 15 minutes before he took questions on Brexit at a news conference. He also expressed skepticism when asked if the referendum would send shock waves through the global markets.

“Look, if the pound goes down, they’re going to do more business,” Trump said then. “When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly.”

Although Trump has claimed to have spent at least 200 million pounds, about $264 million (U.S.), on Turnberry to buy and renovate it since 2014 — a figure that has not been verified independently — the course has yet to turn a profit.

In fact, the Turnberry operation has lost tens of millions of pounds since he purchased it, filings in Britain show: about 17 million pounds in 2016, the last year for which such comprehensive records are available. For 2017, Trump’s government ethics filing discloses only how much revenue the course generated — $20.4 million — not whether it had earned a profit.

Trump’s stopovers at Trump-owned resorts can cost U.S. taxpayers more than more than $100 a minute. For instance, an analysis of a 13-day trip through Asia by The Associated Press showed that Trump’s 10-minute visit to Trump International Hotel Waikiki resort for the cost U.S. taxpayers almost $141,000.

When reached for comment about Turnberry on Friday, the Trump Organization described a success story. In an email, Amanda Miller, a spokeperson, pointed to some of Turnberry’s golf lore — including the much-publicized 1977 British Open championship between legendary golfers Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus.

“Turnberry is an icon in the golf world, and we are incredibly proud of its continued success,” Miller wrote. The resort’s famed Ailsa golf course, she said, was “home to four Open Championships, including the famous 1977 ‘Duel in the Sun.’ ”

Miller did not respond to a request for comment about how the company gauged success if records showed it was losing money.

Trump appears to hold a special place in his heart for Turnberry, perhaps because of his love of golf and because his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who was born in Tong, a village about 480 kilometres from Turnberry, in the north of Scotland.

“I feel very comfortable here,” Donald Trump said to reporters during a 2008 visit to Tong, on the island of Lewis, where he spent about 90 seconds in the modest cottage where his mother was born. “It’s interesting when your mother, who was such a terrific woman, comes from a specific location, you tend to like that location. I think I do feel Scottish.”

When Air Force One landed in Scotland on Friday, it rolled by a plane emblazoned with the “TRUMP” logo, in plain sight of hundreds of local residents who had gathered to see the president land. On his hourlong drive to his resort, hundreds of onlookers waved and recorded cellphone video of the president’s arrival.

The president’s son Eric, who oversees operations at the Trump Organization, was also at Turnberry. Around the time Trump landed, his son posted a video from the Turnberry Lighthouse on social media. In it, a bagpiper plays on a bluff in the distance as the camera pans out to sea. Turnberry guests can stay in the lighthouse for about $1,600 a night.

The Trump Organization did not answer a question about the purpose of Eric Trump’s visit, but he is closely tied to the resort’s restoration efforts.

Eisen, the chairperson of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, takes a more skeptical view. He serves as co-counsel in a lawsuit accusing the president of violating constitutional anti-corruption clauses intended to limit his receipt of government-bestowed benefits, or emoluments.

He sees the Trump family’s efforts this past week as part of a broader and problematic effort to use the presidency to gin up interest in the property.

“Through this trip to Turnberry,” Eisen said, “the president is forcing his foreign hosts and the United States to spend enormous amounts of money so that he can get free advertising for his resort.

“He’s the master of earned media,” Eisen added. “It’s an important part of the way he won the presidency, and that’s what he’s doing here.”

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com